There is a t-shirt that says "Born in Maine, Living in Exile." I lived in "exile" (actually a very nice place) for 32 years, and returned to Maine in 2005. That's not necessarily what all this is about, just the only title I could think of at the time.

Friday, June 26, 2009

Friday Five: Pop Music

Mary Beth at RevGalBlogPals says:

“Happy Friday to you all!The sad news of Michael Jackson's untimely death has me thinking about music and its effects on us - individually, as cultures, as generations. Let's think about the soundtracks of our lives...”1) What sort of music did you listen to as a child - this would likely have been determined or influenced by your parents? Or perhaps your family wasn't musical...was the news the background? the radio? Singing around the piano?

We didn’t have a record player until I was about 11 years old, so up till then it was radio. From age 7 to 9 it was the Armed Forces Network, which had a lot of variety – everything from country and western to rock and roll to folk music, and a song called “I Just Want to Be Elvis Presley’s Sergeant.” When I was 10 I got my own clock radio and listened to WINS and another station from New York; the former was top 40 and the latter included Oscar Brand’s folk show, Martin Block’s Make-Believe Ballroom and even radio serials. I still like the folk and Great American Songbook genres best of all.

2) Going ahead to teenage years, is there a song that says "high school" (or whatever it might've been called where you lived") to you?

It’s hard to pick just one song for all of high school – maybe because I went to three of them? – but for the summer between high school and college there are three songs that take me right back whenever I hear them: The Impossible Dream from Man of La Mancha,

Red Rubber Ball by The Cyrkle

,

and Summer in the City by the Lovin’ Spoonful.

3) What is your favorite music for a lift on a down day? (hint: go to www.pandora.com and type in a performer/composer...see what you come up with!)

I typed in Jim Kweskin and the Jug Band, and so far, 6 songs in, it’s the best luck I’ve ever had with Pandora. I called the station “Auntie Knickers’ Cheery Songs Radio.” However I can’t figure out how to share it other than by emailing everybody, which is just not on. I know there’s a way to put a link on Facebook but I don’t know how to do it. Anyway, there’s Kweskin, Tom Rush, Steve Goodman, Dave Van Ronk, and some other jug band, Dock Boggs – he’s singing “Hard Times in the Wise County Jail” but somehow it’s cheery.

Of course, if I’m really miserable, I play Christmas music out of season, but there are rules about that, so it doesn’t happen often.

4) Who is your favorite performer of all time?

Right this minute I’ll go with Emmylou Harris. But it could change tomorrow or even this afternoon. Can you guess I have eclectic tastes?5) What is your favorite style of music for worship?

I can’t be doing with repetitious praise music. Other than that I like a lot of variety – from plainsong to Fanny Crosby, Bach to bluegrass. I’m pretty easy to please. One other thing I don’t like is lyrics that clunk – usually in modern hymns that sound more like a General Synod resolution than poetry in praise of God. I’m not mentioning any names.

How to define Happy Clappy....for me it's church songs that have really simplistic lyrics and music...but that said, I would not include Taize in that category....and I love a lot of simple music, it's really the lyrics that are important to me.